professional career

Arsenal are notorious for giving young talents an opportunity to perform in the early stages of their professional career. The club is also famous however for poaching young players before they have hit the ground running, only for them to turn into top class talents. Arsene Wenger has had the success stories of Cesc Fabregas, [.

With a career spanning more than a decade across four of Europe's best leagues, Mikael Silvestre is a journeyman of not just the Premier League, but European football as a whole. We caught up with the former French international to discuss matters past, present and future earlier this week.

Jonathan Spector has played in England for the entirety of his professional career, suiting up for Manchester United, Charlton Athletic, West Ham and, ultimately, Birmingham City. However, it appears his time in England may be coming towards its end as an offer from MLS has come in.

Birmingham manager Gianfranco Zola says Spector has received offers that could see him return to the U.

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard hopes he can keep his emotions in check when he bids farewell to Anfield on Saturday night.

The 34-year-old is set to make his final home appearance against Crystal Palace at the weekend to bring the curtain down on a 17-year professional career with the Reds before joining Major League Soccer side Los Angeles Galaxy.

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard hopes he can keep his emotions in check when he bids farewell to Anfield on Saturday night.

The 34-year-old is set to make his final home appearance against Crystal Palace at the weekend to bring the curtain down on a 17-year professional career with the Reds before joining Major League Soccer side Los Angeles Galaxy.

Today it was announced that Marcus Tracy, the former standout college striker who left for Europe, will be returning to Major League Soccer after signing a contract with the league.

Tracy, who was originally from the Chestnut Hill district of Philadelphia but grew up in Connecticut, has been training with the Philadelphia Union recently while negotiating his next employment (h/t Jonathan Tannenwald).

Today it was announced that Marcus Tracy, the former standout college striker who left for Europe, will be returning to Major League Soccer after signing a contract with the league.

Tracy, who was originally from the Chestnut Hill district of Philadelphia but grew up in Connecticut, has been training with the Philadelphia Union recently while negotiating his next employment (h/t Jonathan Tannenwald).

According to Everton's official site, Tim Cahill is now a member of the New York Red Bulls and will
be joining the MLS club later this week. The Australian international has 226 appearances for
Everton scoring 56 times. Though he started as a youth player in Australia, the 32-year-old has
spent his entire professional career in England, joining Millwall in 1997.

The Revolution added their secondÂ striker in three weeks by signing French forward Dimitry
Imbongo on Monday.

The 22-year-old was acquired on a free transfer from the 1860 Munich system, which previously
loaned him out to German third division club SV Darmstadt 98. In 13 games with Darmstadt during the
2011-12 season, Imbongo collected two assists but did not score.

Luis Silva scored the first two goals of his professional career during the past week, and for
that he has won SBI's MLS Rookie of the Week award.

The Toronto FC rookie netted his first goal last Wednesday in the Reds' 3-2 victory over
Canadian rival, the Montreal Impact. And he followed that up by scoring the winner in this past
Sunday's 1-0 victory over the New England Revolution, a goal that capped a memorable week for the
young forward out of UC Santa Barbara.

"It helps to get the monkey off your back. There's a lot of pressure to get that first one, so that felt good."

Seattle Sounders rookie forward Jordan Morris scored his second goal of the season and of his professional career. His first, a week prior at CenturyLink Field against the Philadelphia Union, felt like a huge release of pressure for a player whose hype followed him every time he stepped onto the pitch.

Leo Gonzalez is going home. The former Seattle Sounders left back has signed a contract with Herediano, the club with whom he started his professional career in 2000. Gonzalez played for Herediano for seven years, making 154 first-team appearances before a short stint with Municipal Liberia that directly preceded his move to the Sounders.

After a stuttered start to his professional career, Woodberry has settled down thousands of miles away from home.

The New England Revolution surgically worked possession out to the right flank in the ninth minute of a May 2015 match at Gillette Stadium. Several runners surged into the penalty area, hoping to will a cross past Luis Robles, the New York Red Bulls goalkeeper.

The New England Revolution have traded club captain and longtime loyal soldier Shalrie Joseph to
Chivas USA in exchange for Blair Gavin, the Goats' natural second-round pick in the 2013
SuperDraft, and allocation money. Joseph, one of the Revs' two designated players, leaves New
England for the first time since his professional career began.

Perhaps unknown to soccer fans outside of Brazil, Rogério Ceni is somewhat of a legend in Brazil, especially to fans of São Paulo FC, the team he's played at his entire professional career (since 1993). Ceni is known for being extremely loyal to São Paulo: he holds the record for most matches played as captain of a single team (950), player who has most won with a single team (590 victories), and most matches played for a single team (1207).

Today, Melbourne Victory confirmed the signing of Brazilian midfielder, Guilherme Finkler, on a
two-year deal. Most recently Finkler played with ABC Futebol Clube after he was loaned out by
Criciuma, a team in Brazil's second division. While the attacking midfielder has spent the majority
of his professional career playing in Brazil, in 2006/07 he tried

Liverpool might want to move fast if they want to sign their non-league trialist Daniel Carr. Reports suggest that Premier League rivals Chelsea are ready to hijack the Reds' move for Carr. If Arsenal join the race too that could put Brendan Rodgers' side out of the running completely. That's because Dulwich Hamlet striker Carr [.

Alessandro Del Piero has signed a two-year,Â â‚¬2 million-a-year contract with Sydney FC, thus
making theÂ Australian A-League team only the third club side that the Italian footballing demi-god
will have represented throughout his 22-year professional career.

Paulo Dybala is a footballing Jimmy McNulty. If you are unfamiliar with the HBO series The Wire,
the McNulty character is a detective who just happens to have an ingrained talent for what he does.
He is possessed of an instinct that sets him apart from the rest of the knuckleheads around
him.

For the second time in his short yet promising professional career, Ruben Luna went a full 90
minutes for FC Dallas in Saturday's 3-2 win over Colorado. The last time the young striker went the
distance was on April 1, 2011 at Columbus. And by all accounts, Luna was solid against the Rapids,
displaying some of the same skills-like holding the ball, drawing cards and generally making life
difficult on the opposition, that everyone who has seen him play knows he can display at a moment's
notice.

With all of the talent that Mikey Lopez had around him last season, it was understandable for
the U.S. Under-20 midfielder's contributions to get a bit lost in the shuffle at the University of
North Carolina.

In their quarterfinal against New Zealand today, the USWNT came away with a 2-0 win after
looking by far the better side for the entire match. Abby Wambach scored yet again (if I were a
betting man, er, woman.

This is a fantabulous female footy weekend. It starts Saturday morning with the USWNT facing
Canada in a friendly at Rio Tinto in Sandy, Utah at 11:00am. This is the final game prior to the US
team heading to the London Olympics. Rapinoe, Morgan, Solo and Leroux will be facing a team that
they beat 4-0 in Vancouver this past winter.

As the NWSL kicks off its historic fifth season, McCall Zerboni wants to repeat as champions in a new city, Kat Williamson reflects on her favorite memories and rookie Morgan Andrews can't wait to begin her professional career.

McCall Zerboni isn't ready to retire. At the age of 30, Zerboni is up against the same challenge she's faced throughout her career but in a new environment as Cary, North Carolina will serve as the backdrop for the ninth season of her professional career.

Shane Campbell announced his signing with the City Islanders via social media yesterday.

York, Pennsylvania native Shane Campbell will have a chance to start his professional career close to home. The former Louisville and Penn State defender/midfielder who spent time with the Philadelphia Union Academy announced that he had signed with the Harrisburg City Islanders on social media Tuesday.

In his first camp with the USMNT U-20 squad, Charly Flores was able to fill me in on the exciting beginning to his professional career.

Juan "Charly" Flores was the first official signing of Houston Dynamo USL affiliate side, RGVFC, at the end of 2015. This week, he's been participating in his first USMNT camps, training with the U-20 side as they prepare for some exhibition matches in Florida.

When Greg Garza scored the first goal of his professional career earlier this month, he was overcome with so much emotion that he couldn't settle on a single way to celebrate it, so he settled on two different celebrations.

After the busiest summer of his brief professional career, Terrence Boyd joined Austrian club
Rapid Vienna from German powerhouse Borussia Dortmund in July with the idea that he would find the
necessary playing time to further his development.

Coming off the bench isn't something Brek Shea has done a lot of for FC Dallas over the past few
years if not during his entire professional career. But if the Bryan native returns this weekend as
FCD hosts Chivas USA, that's likely how he'll return to the pitch at FC Dallas Stadium, as a
substitute.